A blog about lovely Waterlooville, a small, environmentally damaged town in Hampshire, UK. Waterlooville was founded after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, as troops from that conflict returned home and passed through Hampshire. Having grown from a small village to a suburban sprawl, Waterlooville faces serious environmental challenges today and in the future.

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Sunday, November 25

We got some bad news this week when it was announced that local authority planners had given the go ahead for Tescos to replace its existing Havant store with a much larger one. Many people have written to the council to complain about the move, far more than those in favour.

A consultancy was even employed by the council to investigate the plan and even they suggested it was a bad idea. Yet the planners gave it the all clear!
One wonders whether any of them really care about the environment or long established businesses in the area.

Elected councillors will be voting this Thursday to make a final decision. I hope they make the correct decision and reject the plan, this would be a major change for development trends and would give a refreshing sign to the community.

Saturday, November 3

Some more fields near Waterlooville that were converted into an environmentally damaging car paradise.
DFS and Focus can be seen in the background, the retail park is built on farm land, the cars to the right of the image are roughly where the original Hambledon Road entered Waterlooville.
To the rear of DFS and Focus is the dual carriageway.

The problem with this development is that it encourages car use. Many of the people driving to this place do not know that the land was once farm land. In many cases the things they purchase wouldn't even fit in a car and so they will have their sofas, washing machines and other goods delivered later by the store. Sure, they can buy small stuff as well, but then why use a car?

Every car parked in the photo, also has another car parking space allocated at the owners home. This results in gardens being destroyed along with a loss in insect and bird life.

What really makes this particular development bad is the fact that it was built across a long standing pedestrian route into Waterlooville, making it an unpleasant stressful walk through the car park. The blame is largely with the local authorities and developers for putting the car first and neglecting pedestrians, cyclists and disability electric buggy riders. The old Hambledon road route into Waterlooville was once publicly owned.

Todays news about the National Trusts more aggressive stance on land use and housing developments is good for many trying to protect their local 'green' land from the governments house building plans for the South and South East.

The National Trust has a good record on environmental issues so this move shouldn't come as a surprise. Unfortunately it has probably come to late for Waterlooville. Lets hope it hasn't though!